​Do you love that slice of cake every night after dinner? Those morning muffins? How about those cookies and seemingly harmless pieces of candy you mindlessly enjoy throughout the day? If you're regularly drawn to sweets, try going without them for a few days and see what happens. Are you having headaches, irritability, cravings, and symptoms that could only be described as withdrawal? Do you find yourself so uncomfortable that you're drawn right back to those sugar-laden foods? It could be you're trapped in what is called a cycle of sugar addiction.

Why We Crave
Food craving, particularly for sweets, is more involved than not being able to resist a second slice of chocolate cake. Researchers have discovered that 'intense sweetness' (from sugar or artificial sweetener) creates a biochemical change in the brain that is a lot like the response to addictive substances. Sugar actually alters the dopamine network - part of the brain's 'pleasure response.' Other factors that play a role in the food we crave include stress, family habits, where we eat and whom we eat with, and time of day.

Curing the Cravings
Our thoughts affect how we feel, and how we feel affects our actions and the choices we make. If you're struggling with food choices and having a hard time managing sugar intake, consider cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Working with a psychotherapist trained in CBT, you'll learn to identify and change thoughts that influence emotions. You'll develop insight into how even the smallest choices allow a behavior to persist and what is getting in the way of changing your patterns.
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In a CBT session, clients use educational exercises, talk therapy, and simulations to change behavior. Sessions usually involve intense work over several weeks to arrive at effective solutions. If you're struggling with cravings, depression, anxiety or addition, give CBT a chance. It could make all the difference in your way of life.

Decades of study and countless books have gone into exploring Omega-3 and the role it plays in our physical and mental health.

​Here are Seven Essential Facts about this ESSENTIAL substance.

1. Omega-3 is called "essential" because it's necessary for our health, but we cannot make it on our own.

2. One essential Omega-3 fatty acid is a substance called α-linolenic acid (ALA). Our body uses ALA to make two other essential fatty acids: DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). However, we don't make enough to meet daily needs for optimal health.

3. Omega-3 is critical for preventing symptoms of chronic illness, such as inflammation, fatigue, joint and muscle pain and poor elimination of toxins.

4. The brain thrives on Omega-3. Without enough, we can experience learning problems, memory issues, brain fog and other neurological symptoms. Proper levels help protect us from Alzheimer's Disease.

5. Food is a great source of Omega-3. Consider salmon, tuna, halibut, krill, flaxseed, walnuts and chia seeds.

6. It's difficult to get sufficient amounts from food alone. Most Americans consume a daily average of 130 mg EPA + DHA - way below the recommended 1000-2000 mg.
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7. Acquiring Omega-3 must be done in a focused fashion, with attention paid to the balance between Omega-3 and Omega-6 (a group of fatty acids linked to increased inflammation). An imbalance can adversely impact well being and brain health.

Touted as the "brain herb", Ginkgo Biloba extract (GBE) has received attention for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, particularly to support cardiovascular and neurological and brain health. Over the past 10-15 years, numerous studies have tested Ginkgo for various actions in treating dementia and Alzheimer's disease, as well as preventing cognitive decline in healthy people.

Ginkgo contains a number of biologically active compounds that work in different ways to support brain health. How these compounds act is not fully known - and is still being researched in animal and human studies - but there are some excellent theories. Ginkgo may work by increasing blood flow in the brain, helping to remove free radicals that can damage cells, and reducing inflammation. It may even protect nerve cells already damaged by Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia.

Hundreds of published studies have evaluated the effectiveness of Ginkgo in people with dementia and other types of cognitive decline. Several studies show that GBE has a positive effect on memory, learning, and thinking in people with Alzheimer disease or vascular dementia.
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Gingko extracts are standardized to specific dosages when used in studies and medical treatment. GBE can interact with blood clotting medications. Be sure to consult with your holistic practitioner before taking Ginkgo.

Yes, we are aging. Every day. That's a simple fact of life. But we're also living longer than ever before and we have a remarkable opportunity to enjoy our longevity by making good choices and paying attention to the role of healthy cognitive function (HCF) in our overall ability to live - and age - with vitality, grace and dignity.

Healthy cognitive function means we're able to retain our ability to think, learn, and remember. We can mentally reason, concentrate, make plans, evaluate and organize information in a variety of ways.

Cognitive health falls along a continuum, from optimal to mild impairment to severe dementia. There's great variability in how dementia develops and how it progresses. Some people never show early signs and others can show a slow or a rapid decline. Some of the early signs of dementia include forgetfulness that disrupts daily living, inability to plan or solve problems, difficulty performing simple or routine tasks, and time/place confusion.

Genetics, lifestyle, and environmental factors are associated with cognitive function. While we can't do too much about inherited risk factors, we can preserve and even enhance brain health with a few simple lifestyle practices. Here are some tips for keeping your brain active, healthy and sharp:

Never Stop Learning. Ongoing research shows the brain is able to evolve and learn across the lifespan. The key is to keep those neurons (brain cells) engaged. Actively seek to learn and experience new things. Read a variety of types of books and magazines. Play Sudoku, chess or other games that involve problem solving. Use an iPad. Travel. Learn a new language. Take (or teach) a class. This kind of mental stimulation helps your brain form new memories, strengthens existing memories, and creates new neural connections.

Stay Connected. Involvement with family, friends, and community creates positive emotions that are linked with overall vitality. People who are alone most of the time show sharper declines in cognitive function. If family isn't nearby, join a club or volunteer.

Move that Body. Research indicates exercise improves connections among brain cells and may reduce risk for dementia. Aim for 30 minutes of exercise, five days per week unless otherwise advised by your physician.

Protect Your Brain. If you smoke or frequently drink alcohol it's akin to draining the brain's natural resources. Smoking interferes with healthy blood circulation, not just in the body but also to the brain. Alcohol impairs communication between neurons and causes long-term changes in brain chemicals involved with memory, emotion, and coordination. Certain prescription medicines (or a combination of medicines) can affect cognition, memory or thinking. If you experience such changes, or notice them in a loved one, talk to your doctor.

And it goes without saying (but it's always good to be reminded): Eating whole foods and a low intake of sweets are the foundation for optimal brain health.
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Remember, dementia is no longer considered a normal and inevitable outcome for an aging brain. We all have opportunities to retain HCF, allowing us to maintain an independent and active lifestyle.

There's no doubt about it: what we eat, and how much we eat, has a direct impact on our physical health. But did you know that those same choices also influence mood, mental alertness, memory, and emotional wellbeing? Food can act as medicine, have a neutral effect, or it can be a poison to the body and mind.
When food acts as poison, it creates inflammation, which alters the body's balance of nutrients, hormones, and neurotransmitters. This directly affects your body's ability to manage and heal from stress or illness.
While some body-mind effects are due to naturally occurring nutrient content in food, much is due to hidden additives. Below, are four common culprits. If you're experiencing symptoms that interfere with your quality of living, talk with your natural health practitioner about the role these or other foods may play in your health.

Foods that Impact Body-Mind Wellbeing:

Caffeine: The most socially accepted psychoactive substance in the world, caffeine is used to boost alertness, enhance performance, and even treat apnea in premature infants. Caffeine is frequently added to other foods, so be mindful of total consumption. Too much caffeine (500-600 mg daily) interferes with sleep quality, which affects energy, concentration, and memory. Caffeine can aggravate other health conditions, cause digestive disturbances, and worsen menstrual symptoms and anxiety.

Food Dye: Those brightly colored, processed and packaged foods come with a rainbow of health risks. Listed on ingredient labels as "Blue 2," or "Citrus Red," food dye has been documented to contain cancer-causing agents (e.g., benzidine). They're also associated with allergic reactions and hyperactivity in children. Dyes are sometimes used to enhance skin color of fruits and veggies. A number of dyes have been banned from use in foods and cosmetics around the world.

Sugars: Increased sugar consumption (as much as 30% over the last three decades for American adults), is linked to decreased intake of essential nutrients and associated with obesity, diabetes, inflammatory disease, joint pain and even schizophrenia. Too much dietary sugar can result in blood sugar fluctuations, causing mood swings, anxiety, irritability, headaches, and increased depression. Sugars that can act as poison include High Fructose Corn Syrup, table sugar, artificial and "natural" sweeteners.

MSG: Monosodium glutamate is a flavor enhancer common in packaged and prepared foods. Although the FDA considers MSG "generally safe," some individuals experience a complex of physical and mental symptoms after eating MSG-containing foods. Symptoms vary but can include headache, sweating, nausea, chest pain, heart palpitations, and overstimulation of the central nervous system which can lead to alterations in sleep, mood, and immunity.
Becoming aware of your food choices, why you make them, and how you feel mentally and physically is an important first step in understanding your personal body-mind food connection. Your practitioner may ask you to keep a mind-body food journal to provide a clear picture of how your food choices affect your health.

The holiday season is upon us; it’s crazy how it just sneaks up like that! So much so that it is a week before Christmas and you haven’t started your shopping, your annual family holiday cards are still in a box waiting to be signed, sealed and delivered, and don’t forget that holiday potluck or two…. what to bring?!  The little stressors of the season add up and can leave you feeling overwhelmed and ready to take a vacation after your Christmas vacation. Here are some ways to minimize the stress and help you through the holidays.

1. Deep breathes – How many of us actually sit down and take the time to breathe in and use the full capacity of our lungs? Really draw in that air until you can’t any more. Deep breathing can calm you down by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.  Here are my tips for deep breathing:
   1. Sit in a comfortable position, cross-legged or in a chair.
   2. Straighten your back for easier breathing.
   3. Close your eyes as it helps you focus on your breaths
   4. Inhale slowly through the nose
   5. Take five seconds to fill the lower part of the lungs, by expanding the ribs and pushing the abdomen out.
   6. Concentrate on filling the top of the lungs for the next five seconds. This will expand the chest and tighten the abdomen slightly.
   7. Hold the breath for 1-5 seconds.
   8. Exhale slowly through the mouth until you have emptied the lungs.
   9. Repeat 5-10 times
2. Calming teas – Who doesn’t like tea? There are so many options to choose from and they all have health benefits. When you are running around with anxiety over buying the perfect gifts, instead of grabbing this seasons festive drink filled with caffeine and sugar (which only add to anxiety) a lot of coffee shops carry herbals teas, so grab a chamomile or a peppermint tea instead. These herbs are anxiolytics meaning they decrease anxiety.
   
3.  Exercise – What a great way to let out built up anger, frustrations and other emotions that are causing you stress. Sports like kickboxing, running and lifting weights are great for this.  Other, more calming forms of exercise include yoga and Tai chi.
   
4.  Journal – Similar to exercise, journaling is a great outlet to release emotions.  It allows you to reflect on the events of the day by writing down the roller-coaster of emotions you may have experienced, and gaining insight into your daily moods and behaviours. It allows for problem solving which can reduce stress, and can enhance self-esteem, which is important for mental health. Tip: journaling doesn’t have to be perfect, just start writing, no need to edit your thoughts and feelings, just get them out.
   
5. Make time for yourself – You are running around trying to do everything and for everyone.  But you won’t be much use to anyone if you don’t take care of yourself first. Invest in yourself and don’t feel guilty for it. Stick to your hobbies, schedule a time to read, listen to music or take a bath, and the quality of everything you do afterwards will be better because of it.
6. Try acupuncture – Acupuncture stimulates the nervous system causing the release of neurochemicals that have biochemical effects on the body and mind, to better your overall well being.
7. Spend time, not money – One of the biggest stresses of the season is around money.  A lot of people would prefer spending valuable time with you instead of receiving a gift.  Spend time by going for walks in nature, or having tea together. Cities always have free events going on that you can partake in and have a lot of fun with, such as ice-skating, and music festivals.
8. Help out your host - Constricted eating habits such as food allergies or sensitivities, can weigh on your mind when you are invited for a holiday meal. Some of your thoughts include “what am I going to eat!” or “I don’t want to be a burden”, and although most hosts don’t mind accommodating, it is nice to help them out. It reduces the stress for you and them. If you have constricted eating, let them know ahead of time so that they can prepare for you, bring a dish so there will be at least one thing you can eat, and don’t arrive hungry; fill up a little before you go as it is likely you won’t be able to eat every dish that is offered.
   
9. Reduce caffeine and sugar - It is well known that these two ingredients can add to an agitated state, so try to keep these to a minimum.
   
10. Meditate – Try to be quiet and present in the moment (I know, easier said than done). Start with 5 minutes a day if you can, if not, try a minute and just work your way up. You tube is a great place to start! This short Guided Meditation will help to get you started:
    

And there you have it!  I hope you give some of these tips a try as you go through the busy holiday season.

If you want more health tips and tricks please feel free to like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or sign up for my Monthly Newsletter for more health education!

 June is Brain Injury Awareness month and hopefully for those of us here in Edmonton, AB that means the nice weather is here to stay.  We almost had a snow-free May, but the blizzard of May 6 gave us an unfriendly reminder not to get too comfortable.  Maybe it’s my Ontario roots telling me that from here on out the weather should be golden, but Albertans tend to warn me not to get too excited.

Nice weather brings people out and makes them more active, whether it is riding your bike, returning to outdoor sports such as soccer and football, or getting up on your roof to finally take down the Christmas lights, more activity means more potential for injury.

The brain is personally my favourite organ in the human body…. the way it looks, the way it feels (yes, I have had the privilege to hold many human brains during my school days), and it’s overall complexity are just fascinating! There is so much to learn and still so much to be discovered about the human brain. Therefore, it is important to wear a helmet and take precautionary actions to prevent brain injuries during activities that could increase the risk for one. However, I want to talk about the importance of protecting and taking care of your brain on an every day basis.  As a Naturopathic Doctor I like to look at the basic pillars to health no matter what concern my patients have, so when it comes to making sure the brain is functioning properly, here’s how:

FOOD:

Your brain is hungry! The brain uses 20% of the energy produced by the body, that’s a lot of energy consumption for one organ.  And your brain never turns off; even while you are sleeping it ensures that the necessary actions are in order to keep you alive.  So thank your brain by feeding it good quality nutritious food and often.  You know those brain farts you experience when you haven’t eaten in a while?  That’s your brain rebelling against you saying ‘if you don’t feed me I’m going on strike!’.  So what are your brain’s favourite foods?  Good quality carbs such as fruits and vegetables that are loaded with vitamins and nutrients, high quality fats such as omega 3 from fish, nuts such as walnuts and pine nuts, and seeds including sesame and chia.

WATER:

If you remember biology class you remember that the human brain is approximately 75% water, so not only is your brain hungry it’s thirsty too!  One of the symptoms of dehydration is a headache, and not getting enough water can cause brain tissue to shrink and put distress on your executive functions such as planning and the ability to perceive objects and their spatial relationship to other objects; that means tasks such as finding your way back home or recognizing a face become more difficult.  So remember to drink half of your body weight (lbs) in ounces of water a day.

SLEEP:

Not getting enough sleep can be detrimental to the proper functioning of your brain. A lack of sleep can decrease the ability for the brain to make new memories, and lead to poor concentration and physical performance.  Getting the right amount of sleep will allow for all of the neurons to rest and recuperate from a hard days work.  So how much sleep should we be getting?  It can depend on a lot of factors, one of them being age. Infants require 16 hours a day and adolescents 9.  Adults should get 7-8 hours a night and remember to make up those hours if you are sleep deprived from the nights before.  Some great tips to help with sleep include making sure the room is dark; maybe invest in some blackout curtains if you live in an area where the sun sets at 11pm like here in Edmonton! Make sure the room is cool; not too hot, not to cold, and keep to a sleep schedule going to bed and waking at the same time every day.

EXERCISE:

Your brain is similar to your muscles in that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  So performing brain games and tasks can greatly benefit your cognition.  However those brain games don’t necessarily require you to get off the couch and be physically active.  Physical exercise increases heart rate, which increases blood flow to the brain bringing it more oxygen.  Overall, physical exercise increases cognitive ability, resists brain shrinkage and promotes neurogenesis – the growth of nerve tissue.  So how much exercise do we need?  Just 30 minutes a day of vigorous exercise can cause improvements in memory and motor skills…now that sounds easy!

STRESS:

Everyone has it! But what are you doing about it?  Being stressed can leave you sleep deprived, decrease your appetite, and make you crave the not so healthy foods…this all acts negatively on your brain. On top of that, the stress hormone cortisol is known to have negative effects on the cognitive functions of your brain such as learning and memory. There is an appropriate amount of stress that is important to life, however in this day-and-age a lot of us have far too much of it.  Therefore it is important not to eliminate stress completely but to manage it.  Some great tools for doing so include Yoga and Tai Chi, these are also great forms of exercise so you would be benefiting your brain two-fold!  Others include meditation, deep breathing and journaling.  Ultimately, find what makes YOU feel relaxed!

I hope these tips were helpful in getting you started on your journey to better brain health.  If you would like more helpful health and wellness tips ‘Like’ me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

References:
Kempton MJ, et al. Dehydration affects brain structure and function in healthy adolescents. Hum Brain Mapp. 2011 Jan;32(1):71-9.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm
Riding M, et al. Just 30 minutes of exercise has benefits for the brain. University of Adelaide. 2014. 
Waldstein,S and Ellias, M (2015). Resting and Stress-Reactive Cortisol. In Neuropsychology of Cardiovascular Disease (pp. 295-316). New York, NY: Psychology Press